Will Jon Stewart walk away from the new Paramount?
It’s a question that has been on the minds of Daily Show fans and staff over the course of the last year amid a series of corporate moves that included the cancellation of the Stephen Colbert-hosted Late Show, and the decision by new owner David Ellison to purchase the proudly anti-woke publication the Free Press and appoint its founder to serve as the editor-in-chief of an ideologically different CBS News.
Stewart’s deal is up at the end of the year, and while there is strong interest from Paramount in renewing the liberal media icon’s deal heading into a general election season, the two sides have yet to ink an extension. Representatives for Paramount and Stewart both declined to comment on any contract negotiations. But company executives see Stewart and The Daily Show as one of two key components, along with South Park, of Comedy Central’s continued relevance amid disruption to the cable bundle by streaming. The Daily Show’s ratings are up, largely driven by renewed interest in the show with Stewart at the helm, and the show’s YouTube page has gained hundreds of thousands of followers and millions of views in recent months.
Paramount announced in July 2025 that Colbert’s show would end the following May. But while Stewart blasted the show’s cancellation at the time — suggesting that it looked like caving to Trump to get easier federal government approval for its various corporate mergers — in late October the Daily Show host agreed to another one-year contract to host the Daily Show once a week.